Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, James Shapiro studied at Columbia University and the University of Chicago. He is currently Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he has taught since 1985. In 2011 James Shapiro was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of multiple books on Shakespeare including Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991); Shakespeare and the Jews (1996); 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005). His book Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (2010) won multiple awards including the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction book published in Britain and the Theater Library Association’s George Freedley Memorial Award; in addition his work The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 (2015) won the James Tait Black Prize and the Sheridan Morley Prize. His 3-hour documentary on late Shakespeare–“The King and the Playwright”–aired on BBC4 in 2012 and his “The Mysterious Mr. Webster” on BBC2 in 2014. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is currently the Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at the Public Theater in New York City. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Authors Guild. In 2017 he was granted a Public Scholar Award by the NEH to write a book on Shakespeare in America.
